


Love of the Wind

by ideallyqualia



Series: UshiOi [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Birds, Birds, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 16:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11165772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: Ushijima and Oikawa slowly dance around each other.





	Love of the Wind

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the cute thing birds do, where they scoot on a perch to get closer to another bird.

Many birds chased Ushijima. He didn't understand why -- he was a shy and quiet bird that spent most of his time alone -- but birds of every stripe approached him and confessed. He declined them all politely, kindly, very aware of their hearts and the fact that he would want the same in return in a similar situation.

He did have the same situation. Oikawa sat on a branch a few trees away, preening and zipping his beak through his feathers, oblivious to Ushijima's problem. As far as Ushijima knew, Oikawa only knew his name and that's it. Oikawa had his own friends, lots of them, almost enough to have an entourage of a flock with him. He was surrounded by a warm sea of feathers even now, along with a low cover of chatter filling the air. The weight of several birds on one or two branches close together brought the branches swaying into the wind, dipping from gravity. It looked too precarious for Ushijima to want to disturb.

The rest of the birds were scattered throughout the trees, silent and vigilant over the floor for prey. Ushijima had a big appetite and spent a lot of the day hunting. He was more hopeful with food than with Oikawa.

After a few minutes passed, Ushijima spotted a mouse in the grass, and he leapt off of his perch and swooped down to scoop it into his claws. Once it was in his grip, he nipped it in a clean bite to give it a quick death. It died instantly.

He repeated this process several times throughout the hours of the day. He watched over the ground from his branch, honed in on an animal, and quietly slipped down to kill it and eat. Once the eagles flew closer to the sea, they could find food easier by hunting fish in the water, but until then, they had to survive on small prey, carrion, and anything leftover from the prey of larger predator animals.

Near the end of the day, as the sunset already softened the edges of the world, Ushijima dove for one last meal. He jumped into the air in perfect form, his wings tucked in to himself to thin into a sleek torpedo, but moments before he could sink his feet into the vole he had his eyes on, someone else swooped in and snatched it.

Ushijima couldn't recover from the shock, and he skidded on the floor and clipped the other bird's wing. The vole fell out of its mouth.

The bird snarled. "You made me drop it!"

Ushijima recognized Oikawa's face, freezing on the spot. Then he dipped his head into a deep bow. "I'm sorry, Oikawa. I can catch you another one, if you'd like."

"Bleh. I don't want the taste of your mouth on my food." Oikawa clacked his beak. "Didn't you see me coming?"

"No, I didn't."

"Well, pay better attention next time." Oikawa twisted his head to survey the tracks the vole left. Some of the grass had been yanked out in chunks from the scuffle, leaving the vole able to sneak away with its footprints lost.

"I really can catch you something else. It wouldn't be a problem," Ushijima said to fill the silence.

"I don't doubt you can." Oikawa's wings drooped, his feathers flattening and then fluffing back to normal. "Fine. Go get me something to eat. I'm hungry."

Ushijima fumbled to gather himself and his wings. "Got it. I'll be back." He took off into the air and hunted two more times, once for Oikawa and once for himself.

Half an hour later, he found Oikawa sitting high up in a tree. He flew in and navigated under the branches to present another vole to him.

Oikawa tilted his head. "Is this the same one?"

Ushijima shook his head, unable to speak with prey in his beak. Oikawa grumbled and leaned in to accept the vole. For a moment his beak brushed Ushijima's, tapping in unavoidable contact, his face right in front of his. Ushijima's mouth hardened and clamped tight from the pressure.

Oikawa bit and jerked away. "Hey, let go already," he complained, muffled through the vole fur.

Ushijima opened in a stiff movement, letting his own food fall into his foot. He bowed his head down to avoid Oikawa's eyes as he took a bite.

Oikawa grunted. "Thanks." He flapped his wings to hop from branch to branch until he was higher than Ushijima. He tore apart his meal and dug in.

Ushijima stared down at his own food. Once he finished eating, he preened and nuzzled his head to his wing and slept.

 

* * *

 

Ushijima still felt guilty about ruining Oikawa's dinner-hunt. He woke up early with the sun and scoured the land for more food, and by the time Oikawa awoke, Ushijima had already caught two rabbits and three mice.

Ushijima dodged and flapped around his friends to greet him. He transferred the food to his feet. "Good morning, Oikawa. I brought you breakfast."

A few nearby birds quieted into whispers to watch them.

"Breakfast? What for? Feel bad for yesterday?" Oikawa took a rabbit and two mice from him, mumbled thanks, and ate. Ushijima ate beside him.

"Do you want me to bring you lunch, as well?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Oikawa shrugged. After wiping his beak on the branch, he hunkered down on his feet and puffed his feathers, making himself comfortable.

Ushijima returned at noon with another catch. At dinner, Oikawa caught his own food and brought it, and then complained when Ushijima arrived with more.

"If you're going to keep catching food, then at least tell me." Oikawa griped about it for a while until Ushijima suggested they share and swap catches. Oikawa had a chipmunk and a few squirrels, and Ushijima traded with a couple rabbits.

"I'll stop hunting for you, then," Ushijima said when they finished. "My debt is paid."

Oikawa released his squirrel from his beak, letting that part of the piece fall and dangle from his foot. He faced Ushijima and looked him over.

"What is it?" Ushijima asked, hiding the quiver in his voice.

Oikawa rumbled in a low and irritated voice. "You're a good hunter..." He shifted on his feet. "You can hunt some more if you want."

"Are you sure?"

"What do I care? You're the one going through the effort." Oikawa fluttered his wing in a dismissive wave. "Do whatever you want."

 

* * *

 

Throughout the next few weeks, Ushijima dutifully hunted and brought food for Oikawa three times a day. They created a routine, then, with Ushijima sitting next to Oikawa as they quietly ate. Ushijima couldn't believe his luck. He trembled in the back of his head with a dance of silent happiness.

"Do you know how to hunt fish?" Oikawa asked once they reached the ocean in their migration.

"Of course."

"Figures." Oikawa stretched his beak and yawned. It was early morning, and by now, Ushijima knew Oikawa hated mornings. Ushijima never would've been able to guess before Oikawa told him.

"Do you know how?"

"Do I? I might even know better than you." Oikawa opened his wings, and the sudden gust ruffled Ushijima's feathers. "Watch."

Oikawa leapt down and blended into a blur at the drop. His feet grazed the water, striking the surface as his talons curled and uncurled. Water blared out from the stroke of his feet, streaming out in long powerful slashing waves. Ushijima bowed to him when he returned with the fish.

"That was beautiful, Oikawa," Ushijima said with a few small pleased noises.

Oikawa turned his head to the side. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"You're welcome." Ushijima slowly lowered his head, paused, and neared Oikawa's foot to bite the fish.

Oikawa moved his foot away. "This is my fish. Go get your own."

Ushijima shrugged and dove to the water to grab another fish. He noticed Oikawa watching him, but as he drew close, Oikawa averted his eyes and pretended to not notice him.

Ushijima's wings fluttered a little as he landed close to Oikawa on his branch. They ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes. When they finished, someone cleared their throat, and they turned and saw another eagle next to Ushijima on his branch.

It was Ushijima's first confession in a while. He declined them and gently sent them on their way, but when he finished, he found Oikawa glaring at him.

"It's infuriating, you know," Oikawa said. "You're big and strong, and you're a good hunter -- probably _because_ you're big and strong -- and everyone likes you."

Ushijima squinted. "Is that bad?"

"No, but... I didn't like you at first. You hardly talked." Oikawa groaned. "It just makes others like you more. Cool and stoic -- cut it out, it's cliché."

"Oh. Alright." Ushijima continued to eat the fish around Oikawa's foot. Oikawa sighed.

 

* * *

 

True to his word, Ushijima tried to talk more, especially with Oikawa's friends. After a few days Oikawa stopped him.

"My friends like you," Oikawa said in a strained voice through his beak.

"How's that a problem?"

"It's not. No problem. Nothing." Oikawa faced another direction and watched the clouds in the sky.

Ushijima scooted closer to him, his head leaning in and his feet inching forward slowly on the branch. "Oikawa?"

Oikawa took a step back. "Uh, what're you doing? Don't get so close," he stammered.

"I want you to talk to me. Why are you changing your mind?"

"Because it's weird." Oikawa huffed. "Months ago we barely talked, and now we eat together? It's too fast now that I think about it." He re-gripped his perched claw on the branch. "Other birds have noticed, too. They don't even confess to you that often anymore."

"They don't?" Ushijima tilted his head back and forth to think. "They don't. You're right."

"I'm _repelling_ them," Oikawa complained.

"Thanks for that, then."

"No, it's not a good thing. Aren't you embarrassed?"

Ushijima's face twitched. He embarrassed easily at almost anything; it could be true for lots of things.

"Well, if you don't see anything wrong, then I won't point it out to you." Oikawa muttered and lowered his head closer to his body, curling up to rest.

Tentatively, Ushijima moved himself closer, waddling step by step. His feet bumped into each other in the side to side motion, and he paused on every step, waiting for Oikawa to complain again.

Oikawa peeked an eye open. "Wakatoshi?"

"Yes?" Ushijima hovered near Oikawa's head.

Oikawa opened and closed his beak in a sleepy mumble. He stretched his neck out and reached over Ushijima's back to clasp a feather with his beak.

"Ugh, never mind," Oikawa said as he started preening Ushijima.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N): Not looking for concrit; don't leave any.


End file.
